Cryptic is taking an unusual approach to beta recruiting these days as players who visit one NCsoft City of Heroes forum have found out. Apparently CoH players were targeted and sent PMs via their forums with an invitation to try Champions Online during the beta by an official Cryptic rep. Wired has the details on what happened and the official response from Cryptic Studios.

Ivan Sulic, Marcom Manager for Cryptic -- "Marcom is basically Community, PR, and Marketing," Sulic says -- responded to our inquiries into the matter with the following official statement:

So, we're currently running the closed beta test for Champions Online and a few of our employees thought it might be a good idea to contact avid MMO notables and various guild leaders floating about to see if they wanted to test. I'm certain this wasn't meant to be a malicious attack on a competing product, nor did anyone intend to steal players, violate user agreements, kill babies, or knife hardworking farmers in the back.